From nothing to a cross-CLI handoff

This page starts with an empty machine and ends with a task that you send from one CLI to a different CLI. Each step gives the command and the result that you must see. If a step does not agree, stop at that step.

1 · What you must have first

The list is short. Everything after it is optional.

• Go 1.25 or later, to build Glider. The module declares go 1.25.0, and an older toolchain refuses it.
• A C compiler, on Windows only. The tray and the native window bind to Win32, so cgo is required and a build with CGO_ENABLED=0 fails. Any gcc is sufficient: MSYS2 UCRT64, or TDM-GCC. Linux needs no compiler.
• A minimum of one AI coding CLI: claude, cursor-agent or agy. Two or more give you the handoff.
• Windows or Linux.

Make sure that each CLI operates by itself first:

go version
gcc --version      # Windows only
claude --version
cursor-agent --version
agy --version

What you do not need for a handoff

A handoff to another CLI needs none of the following. Each one belongs to a different part of Glider, and you can add it later.

2 · Build Glider

git clone https://github.com/singhutsav5502/Glider
cd Glider
go build -o glider.exe ./cmd/glider

Run Glider from the repository root. It reads configs/glider.yaml and configs/vendor_candidates.yaml from the current directory.

3 · Start it

The default config turns transparent redirection on. Therefore Glider gets the traffic of each CLI with no change to any of them. On Windows, start the terminal as Administrator. On Linux, use root.

.\glider.exe

You must see these lines:

dashboard  http://127.0.0.1:8081
gateway    http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1

Open the dashboard. If the Vendors page is empty, push Rescan for CLIs. Glider must find each CLI that you installed.

Trust the certificate, or transparent mode fails. The first start makes a CA at ~/.glider/mitm/ca.crt. Glider decrypts with it, and a CLI refuses that traffic until the certificate is in your trust store. Install it there: on Windows this is Trusted Root Certification Authorities. Claude Code needs only this. For Cursor, also point its runtime at the same file: NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS=%USERPROFILE%\.glider\mitm\ca.crt, then stop Cursor completely. Refer to MITM · the certificate authority.

Delegation and the workspace command below do not need the certificate. Only interception needs it. To do the walkthrough with no certificate, use the gateway in step 4.

4 · If you do not want Administrator

Transparent mode needs Administrator or root. Without it, use the gateway instead: point one CLI at Glider and start Glider with no special permission.

# Claude Code
set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8080

# any CLI with a base-URL setting
http://127.0.0.1:8080/v1

Everything below this point operates the same in the two modes. Refer to MITM & interception for the full comparison.

5 · Tell Glider your project directory

A delegate CLI must know which directory to use. Glider asks you one time for each session. Reply with the path and the flag:

. /workspace

Glider asks each session, also when you set a default. It cannot see which project a new CLI is in, therefore it does not estimate. A default on the Vendors page of the dashboard puts that path in the question, and you send it back. Thus a second CLI that you open in a different project never gets the directory of the first project with no message.

6 · Your first handoff

Type this in any supported CLI. Put the name of a different CLI at the end of the message.

summarize the last ten commits /cursor-agent

Glider claims the message, runs cursor-agent, and puts its final answer in your session. You do not open a second window.

The flag must be at the end. If you put /cursor-agent at the start, your own CLI reads it as a local command and never sends the message. Refer to Delegation for the cause.

7 · Answer a permission question

A delegate CLI stops when it needs a permission. Glider gives you the question and a token:

[claude] needs permission for 1 action it could not complete headlessly:
  - Edit: src/auth/session.ts

Reply with "4472bef1 /claude:allow" to approve and continue, or "4472bef1 /claude:deny" to skip this step.

Send the token back. The run continues with that one permission only:

4472bef1 /claude:allow

The token identifies the run and the vendor. Glider gives it to you, and you must not write your own token. When the run completes, Glider shows the edits as a diff.

8 · Templates: another way to run a CLI

Add :name after the vendor to select a different command template. These are the templates that configs/vendor_candidates.yaml gives you:

fix the auth bug /claude:interactive
refactor this module /agy:headless

An interactive template opens the native session of that CLI in a new window, with your task as the first message. You then control that window, and no text comes back to your chat. A headless template runs the CLI with no window and returns the final answer to you.

/agy opens a window, because the default template of agy is interactive. Its headless mode cannot ask you for a permission, so it always fails at the first permission. Use /agy:headless only when you accept that limit.

9 · Send a turn to your own machine

This is a different mechanism from the handoff, and it is optional. Glider can send a turn to a local model instead of the cloud.

ollama serve
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:14b

Choose a model that fits your card. Glider reads the true size of your GPU when it starts, and it refuses a model that cannot fit. It does this in about a tenth of a second, and it names the cause, instead of letting Ollama fail with a CUDA error half a minute later. qwen2.5-coder:14b above estimates 9000 MB and wants about a 12 GB card. On a 4 GB card, use qwen2.5-coder:3b and set local_model to it. The VRAM page shows the measured total and the headroom. With no nvidia-smi on the machine, Glider reports VRAM as not measured and stops limiting local models, rather than inventing a size.

Then use a routing command. It can go at any position in the message:

/local explain what this function does

To use only local models, start Glider with the pure local profile. Then Glider uses no cloud key at all.

.\glider.exe --config configs\glider.local.yaml

Refer to Routing for the full rule ladder, and to Pure local for the profile.

10 · Watch what it does

Open http://127.0.0.1:8081. These are the eight pages:

Start on the Playground page. It examines what you type with the same parser that Glider uses, and it changes nothing.

11 · Each command in one table

12 · When something is wrong

Next: Automatic rules makes your CLI send these tasks without your help, Delegation gives the full permission relay, and Architecture shows where each part operates.